Cyberbullies often justify their actions as an "inevitable" within online spaces while shifting blame onto their victims, reveals a new report by the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC). The report, titled Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence on Social Media, analyzed common understandings of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) on X (formerly Twitter) between February 1, 2024, and February 28, 2025.
The report defines TFGBV as "any act enabled by digital tools that is likely to cause physical, sexual, psychological, social, or other forms of harm". The conversation was categorised into five focus areas, including revenge porn (sharing private or intimate photos or videos of a person, usually an ex-partner, without consent), cyberbullying, trolling, doxxing (releasing personal and identifying information without permission) and defamation.
According to CABC, the anonymity afforded by social media often fuels cyberbullying, with consequences ranging from emotional and psychological issues to, in severe cases, suicide. Anonymity is especially prevalent on X, where users can create accounts with anonymous usernames. This allows anonymous influencers and accounts to spread harmful content without fear of repercussions due to their anonymity.
Researchers found that instead of condemning cyberbullying, there was more emphasis on individuals who posted images and videos to tolerate or accept the bullying as it came with the territory of being on social media.
Some users suggested that cyberbullying could be avoided by simply deleting social media apps or blocking offensive content and accounts as sufficient protection from potential harm. However, such sentiments shift responsibility away from perpetrators but blame the victims for inviting bullying simply by posting online - rather than holding bullies accountable for their actions.
Victim-blaming was also evident in instances of trolling, where offensive remarks were disguised as humour. This often took the form of body-shaming, with individuals making derogatory comments about the appearance of those who shared their images online.
Blaming individuals for being bullied was also detected under the category of trolling, where offensive statements directed to some individuals were disguised as humour. This took place in the form of body-shaming, where individuals made unsavoury remarks about the appearance of others sharing their images online.
Cyberbullying was not the only trivialised behaviour.
Researchers observed that some accounts downplayed the seriousness of non-consensual sharing of intimate images and videos - commonly referred to as revenge porn. Non-consensual sharing is any act that involves the sharing of an intimate image or video of someone else without the permission of the subject of the image or video.
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The 'Revenge Porn' category returned a subset of the overall conversation containing approximately 6,822 mentions and said mentions were reposted around 8,930 times, with 5,227 unique authors contributing to the conversation.
The report found out that the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and videos remains an area of concern on South African social media, particularly where the subjects of such images, videos are celebrities and/or influencers.
CABC said that sharing intimate images or videos without permission is dismissed as harmless, ignoring the possibility that those depicted may not have given their consent for their private content to be distributed publicly. Some users justified the sharing of intimate images and videos by claiming that privacy is lost as soon as a photo is taken or a video is recorded.
This act may stem from users' failure to understand the laws surrounding 'revenge pornography' as amended by South Africa's Films and Publications Act, as well as misinformation spread online.
There is also a misunderstanding regarding the legal implications of sharing intimate images or videos without consent. Some users believed that the law only punishes the original distributor of the content, not those who reshare it.
This is incorrect, as the law can also apply to those reposting, resharing, or forwarding the image or video, reports CABC.
